Amy Fox and Dean Gray's Farm Boys is currently being presented at the New
Conservatory Theatre Center. The drama is based on William D. Fellows' book
Farm Boys: Lives of Gay Men from the Rural Midwest, which presented a series of
autobiographical narratives by gay men raised on farms during the 20th century. This
production has personal appeal to me since I was raised in a farming community in Ohio. The
main plot could rightly be the old "saw," "You can take the boy off the farm but
you can't take the farm out of the boy."

Farm Boys is set in the 1980s with flash backs to the 1960s in Colby, Wisconsin
(their big event of the year is the Colby Cheese Festival). The play opens very strangely
with Lyle (Brian Levy) lying on a beach with a sign overhead saying Fire Island. We
learn later on that Lyle is a ghost and this Fire Island is the playwright's version
of heaven. The plot centers on a late-30ish John (Matt Socha) who has been living in New
York with his lifetime companion Kim (Norman Muñoz), a modern dance choreographer. John is
returning to his rural Wisconsin home town since has inherited the farm of Lyle, his first
lover. He faces Lois (Scarlett Hepworth), Lyle's ex-wife who knew of the affair. However,
she welcomes John and his partner with open arms to Wisconsin.

The ghost of Lyle visits John and the play goes back in time when John was a teenager
having a tempestuous affair with the town veterinarian Lyle. It's reminiscent of Brokeback
Mountain in that Lyle is uncomfortable with the relationship. The memories of that
relationship cast a shadow over his current relationship with Kim. Also, the community is
fearful the couple will live there, and John must decide where he and Kim can create a
home for themselves. Lois is now remarried and hopeful that the couple will stay; Kim thinks it is a swell idea to opening up a school of modern dance. Also in the mix is a large corporation that is slowly extinguishing the small farmers in the area.
Keith (Bradly Mena), a closeted teenager who is planning to go to Bible College in St. Paul,
enters into the two-hour drama. He becomes friendly with Kim and in a moment of passion
plants a big kiss on the dancer's mouth. Guilty of his secret homosexual passion, he turns
against Kim and tells his pastor that he was sexually assaulted by Kim. As to what happens to everyone, I
leave secret.

Farm Boys portrays accurately the fact that the land haunts gay persons who
leave for the city; for many of them it is a forced exile from the place where they were born
and raised. Amy Fox and Dennis Gray's words are well written and the confrontations between
the characters are excellent. Director Dennis M. Lickteig's scenes in the first act are a
little awkward - one does not immediately get the idea that Lyle is a ghost, and the
opening scene on a beach in Fire Island can be confusing.

Lickteig has cast some excellent actors to play the parts. Matt Socha
(recently seen in Visiting Bertha at the SF Fringe Festival) as John delivers some
very touching moments in the second act. He deftly steers his way into being a 16-year-old
in the flashbacks. Norman Muñoz (has played drag queens and demons in many productions) is
very good as Kim, with the funniest lines in the play, and he delivers them with perfect comic
timing. He is the perfect opposite of Kim's mate John. He also does a wonderful modern
dance routine in the second act.

Bradly Mena (Equus, Corpus Christi) gives a strong and believable performance as
the sexually repressed teenager Keith. His speech inflections as a farm boy in Wisconsin are
perfect. Scarlett Hepworth (many regional productions) gives a heartrending
performance as Lois. Brian Levy (spent 12 years dancing professionally in New York and
Minneapolis) as the ghost Lyle has very little to do but stand around looking
sympathetic to John's predicament. However, it is an efficient portrayal of a ghost.

Farm Boys has been extended through March 4 at the New Conservatory Center Theatre. The
theatre is located at 25 Van Ness Ave, just off Market St, San Francisco. For tickets
please call 415-861-8972 or on line at www.nctcsf.org. Also running is Craig
Lucas's Dying Gaul through March 4th.